1) FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a condiment grinder of the kind having a container to hold the condiment in granule or pellet form to be ground into small particles, with the grinder comprising a pair of a cooperating coaxial grinding tools at the base of the container, one tool being rotatable relative to the other.
2) DESCRIPTION OF TEE PRIOR ART
Condiment grinders are widely known at the present time. The basic structure of a condiment grinder comprises a housing and has an internal chamber. Within the internal chamber is to be placed a quantity of the condiment in pellet or granule form that is to be ground into small particles. The bottom end of the chamber includes a grinder. The user is to hold fast the housing and then cause rotation of the grinder which will result in grinding of some portion of the condiment. The produced small particles are then dispensed exteriorly of the grinder.
It's not at all uncommon to have certain members of a family, or within any single group of people that are sitting at a table for the purpose of eating, to desire different types of ground condiments. For example, one particular individual may want a black pepper while another individual may desire another type of pepper such as garlic pepper, lemon pepper, green peppercorns and so forth. Ground pepper of different types could be placed on the table and made available to the different individuals.
It is known that if the peppers are ground right at the table, their taste is far superior to peppers that have been preground. Therefore, in the past in order to make available different types of fresh peppers that are to be ground at the table, it was necessary to provide at least two pepper grinders. To overcome the disadvantage of providing several pepper grinders at a single table or restaurant, there has been constructed a condiment dispenser which can be used to dispense a plurality of different condiments. It is common to incorporate a salt dispenser in conjunction with a pepper grinder. It has also been known to incorporate a multitude of different grinders into a single housing with each grinder to be utilized to grind a single condiment.
In the past, it has not been known to be feasible to utilize a single grinder in conjunction with a multitude of different condiments. The reason for this is that when a particular condiment is ground, and then the grinder moved to grind a second condiment, inherently there will remain a small amount of the first condiment. This means that the individual that is desirous of a certain type of condiment is actually getting a small part of another type of condiment. For this reason, it has been believed to not be feasible to utilize a single grinder with a plurality of different condiments.